Not that Bird Island, this one

Hands up if you know where South Georgia Island is! This bleak place just made the news because Ellen MacArthur spent time there. She is a heck of a sailor - broke the solo circumnavigation record in 2005. She's giving this up (for now) after camping on the island to highlight the plight of the albatross, an almost mystical bird that stays aloft for as long as seven years. Now that's catching thermals! We see them here off Cape Point sometimes. I spent many hours in 1986 while living in Johannesburg, straining to hear the radio comms of the British Antarctic Survey bases dotted around the Antarctic region. I also heard a couple of their supply ships. They would often come up on Friday evenings, not that they had much night there in the Antarctic summer. The scientists would exchange news. I also heard the US and German bases. Like the Falklands, South Georgia is also claimed by Argentina. But being over 1500 miles from Buenos Aires it'll be a bit hard to defend! It's also famous for the crossing by adventurer, Ernest Shackleton, in one of the great Houdini acts in exploration history. He later died and was buried there. The QSLs are all signed by BJ Turner of the BAS in Cambridge, England. He filled each one in with detail and comments making them a great collectors' item.